Counting all the valid votes in an election is a good thing, right? Of course it is.

That’s the rationale three commissioners on the Saratoga Springs City Council are giving for their decision to hire an election lawyer to oversee the process of counting absentee ballots in the hotly contested charter change vote.

In a special council meeting on Monday, Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan defended the decision on the basis that proponents of the charter change are hiring a lawyer to oversee the process. Accounts Commissioner John Franck previously told the Times Union that he anticipates the attorney working on behalf of charter change advocates would try to get votes disqualified.

But using public funds for this purpose is essentially unheard of in New York. Election lawyers to oversee ballot counts are hired by candidates or issue activists, not by a local government.

“This is among the most categorically outrageous and inappropriate uses of public money I have ever seen and I work in Albany,” tweeted Ken Giardin, a policy analyst with the Empire Center for Policy, an independent think tank.

So why are Frank and Madigan leading this charge? They need every paper ballot counted to overcome the 48-vote lead pro-charter change advocates had after Election Day. It has been reported that the returned absentee ballots (more than 510) lean Republican, which anecdotally should benefit opponents to the charter change.

Franck said on Monday that his opposition to the charter change was “immaterial,” but it’s hard to imagine he would take this position if his side was leading in the vote.

This was a guest post by David Lombardo, who has covered multiple absentee ballot counts as a reporter and oversaw the absentee ballot count for Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara in 2014.

3 Comments

Jane WeiheNovember 14, 2017 at 1:45 am

I’m curious as to what you think about Mayor Yepsen taking Tony Izzo, the assistant City Attorney, down to the Board of Elections at taxpayers’ expense along with former Charter Commission members Bob Turner and Gordon Boyd the day after the election to meet with the Commissioners of Election regarding the upcoming absentee ballot count.

(This is Dave)
I’m not familiar with what you described, but my response would depend on the reason for the visit.

Asking about the city’s role in the process or looking for guidance on moving forward would be fine. But if the rationale was something like this it doesn’t make sense to have private citizens present.

But the mention of Bob Turner makes me want to comment on reports that he questioned the undervotimg on the charter question. It’s not unusual for voting to drop off as you move along the ballot. This trend was even evident among the statewide propositions.